Ridge vents and hip vents for ventilating a shingled roof have been known and used for many years. Such vents generally are installed along a ridge or along a hip of a roof covering a pre-cut ventilation slot to the attic below. It is inherently more difficult to seal a hip slot against ingress of blowing rain and snow because, among other reasons, of the angled nature of the hip and the angled down-slope directions away from the hip. Hip vents available in the past have had various inherent problems in this regard, particularly when it comes to their ability to prevent water infiltration beneath the vent and into a ventilation slot below.
One prior art hip vent for instance features an intricate baffle and foam insert design to block weather from entering the hip slot. Due to its intricate design and water protection features, it provides for low ventilation of the attic space below. Also, during installation of the vent, large gaps can result between the vent and the varying profile of hip cap and adjacent shingles. This is particularly true for roofs covered with architectural shingles, which are highly textured and exhibit large variations in thickness. According to the prior art, these gaps must be filled with caulking to provide a sufficient seal between the plastic base of the hip vent and the shingles in order to prevent water infiltration. For hip roofs shingled with high profile thick shingles, the amount of caulking required to seal the system can be very large and can actually promote leakage over time or if not carefully applied and maintained. Also, the high profile (i.e. the thickness) of this prior art vent does not provide for an aesthetically pleasant hip roof.
Another prior art hip vent features a blade or fin arrangement intended to provide seal between the vent and the underlying shingles along the hip of a roof. However, the fins alone do not completely seal between the hip vent and the shingles below and extensive amounts of caulking can still be required to obtain a good seal. A third prior art hip vent features a design that allows for little ventilation of attic space below due to its having very limited NFA (Net Free Area). This design also requires large amounts of caulking to prevent water infiltration into a hip slot beneath the hip vent.
A need exists for an attic vent usable along the hip of a hip roof that is easily installable without the need for caulking, even for roofs with thick profiled architectural shingles; that provides for a low profile (i.e. a thinner) aesthetically pleasing vent when installed; and that effectively redirects wind-blown water and snow thereby preventing water and snow penetration beneath the vent, even during blowing rain or blowing snow. It is to the provision of such a hip vent, which also may be used as a ridge vent if desired, that the present invention is primarily directed.